‘A fact-checking army’

For U.S. President Donald Trump’s annual State of the Union address Tuesday night, fact-checkers came out in force. They took to a new live fact-checking platform to provide context in real time. They posted fact checks to Twitter and Facebook as Trump spoke — some of which went viral. At one point, PolitiFact’s site went down briefly because of the rise in traffic.

The verdict: “President Trump’s State of the Union speech had soaring rhetoric — and many dubious facts and figures,” according to The Washington Post Fact Checker.

(Photo by Alex Knight on Unsplash)

This is how we do it

Fact-checkers have started using an automated tool that automatically scans for checkable claims in CNN transcripts.

Africa Check has a new step-by-step guide to using reverse image search tools on mobile devices, and a tip sheet for fact-checking photos.

A fact-checking project debunking hoaxes about last weekend’s Czech presidential election runoff got about 80,000 pageviews on its first day.

This is bad

Inspired by President Trump, an Idaho state legislator wants to start a “fake news awards” program in her state.

An Italian news wire sent out the wrong photo of a woman who died following a train crash (This doesn’t need to happen. See AfricaCheck item above).

Maria Ressa, CEO of the Philippines news site Rappler, says some governments use “patriotic trolling” to intimidate journalists. Rappler’s license has been suspended by the government after the publication criticized the current administration.

Coming up

There are two more weeks to apply to Global Fact V (400 people have already done so)

If you read one more thing

Fake accounts and followers on Twitter are annoying, ridiculous — but not harmless.They can “help sway advertising audiences and reshape political debates. They can defraud businesses and ruin reputations.” The New York Times explains.

Alexios Mantzarlis joined Poynter to lead the International Fact-Checking Network in September of 2015. In this capacity he writes about and advocates for fact-checking. He also trains and convenes fact-checkers around the world.

Jane Elizabeth leads the American Press Institute's project to improve and expand accountability journalism. She is the Washington Post's former deputy local editor; and has taught journalism at Old Dominion University, the University of Pittsburgh and Point Park University.